President A P J Abdul Kalam has said the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to define what constitutes an office of profit has vindicated his decision to return a bill on the issue to Parliament before finally giving his assent to it.

"The issue connected to the Office of Profit bill is quite clear. The decision we took was in strict conformity with the Constitutional provision, both in letter and spirit," Kalam, who was on a two-day visit to the northeast, said in an interview with NETV in Aizwal.

"Now you will notice that further action by both Houses of Parliament in terms of formation of the JPC and general mood of the people and political parties has vindicated our stand," he said.mm

Kalam initially returned the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill of 2006 when it was sent to him in May after being passed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Both Houses again passed the bill and returned it to the President on August 1. He signed it on August 18, a day after the JPC was set up to define what constitutes an office of profit -- a key issue that was raised by Kalam.

Referring to the 27 per cent quota for OBCs in elite educational institutions, Kalam said this could be tackled by increasing seats in medical and management colleges.

"In engineering colleges today, if you look at 2005 and 2006, 25,000 to 30,000 seats are vacant," he said, adding the costs of admission and courses would come down if these seats were filled.

"So...the best thing... to neutralise the reservation is to increase the number of seats in medical...and in management (institutions)," he said.